Stats vs. Real people
By Jacques Conway
August 28, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard much about AIDS
these days. The media has talked about the number of cases of
AIDS in Africa, but what about the cases right here in America?
Last month the government reported that HIV cases have been
under reported by 40 percent over the last several years. With
this news, comes the report that there are 2,000 new HIV cases
annually in Chicago. These are all the facts that I need to
conclude that the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. is far worse than
imagined.
I have talked with a number of medical doctors, who have told me
that they are not surprised by the government’s most recent
report because they see new clients affected with HIV in their
offices more and more every month. The government’s report
stated that there are about 53,000 people believed to be infected
with HIV annually. These new cases are rising fastest among gay
and bisexual men, and represents about 53% percent of the
infections.
When I look at the break down by race and ethnicity, I learned that
African-Americans are at 83.7%, Hispanics at 29.3 % and Whites
at 14.6%. About 60 percent of the victims are younger than 40
years old and 73% are men. In the African-American community,
black women are the most at risk. The reason, black women
are not aware that their male sex partners are having sex with
other men or had sex with men in the past and were infected with
HIV. Too many sisters still believe that unprotected sex is
better than protected sex and the pleasure they receive from
having unprotected sex with one or more men, out weights the risk
of being infected with HIV.
The statistics are alarming and a wake up call to not only get
informed but get involved in the fight against AIDS. In trying to do
my part, I will support the AIDS Run/Walk Chicago event next
month in Chicago. I encourage more churches and schools to
push for additional funding for AIDS research and prevention.
More energy and resources must go into educational programs to
help reduce the grim statistics of AIDS.
I hope our two presidential candidates, over the next several
months, stand tall and lead this country by talking about a national
strategy to address an epidemic that has affected over
50,000 persons a year.
